


shine the brightest in the dark

by snapdragonpop007



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Episode: s02e02 The Cave of Two Lovers, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Hurt Zuko (Avatar), M/M, POV Zuko (Avatar), i do believe i accidently started an AU, in that he's just really tired and overworked
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-08
Updated: 2020-08-08
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:01:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25791031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snapdragonpop007/pseuds/snapdragonpop007
Summary: Sokka cursed some more and looked wildly around before his eyes landed back on the stone coffin and the carvings. “You said love is brightest in the dark. Maybe we could do something with that.”“What are we gonna do with that?” Zuko frowned. His hands were shaking. “Kiss and hope a light turns on?”“I don’t know, maybe!”--or, I rewrite The Cave of Two Lovers but make it zukka
Relationships: Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 15
Kudos: 678





	shine the brightest in the dark

**Author's Note:**

> come say hi on Tumblr @snap-dragon-pop

Zuko kicked a rock and watched it ricochet off a tree and slam back into the cliff side. 

It was not nearly as satisfying as he had hoped it would be, so Zuko kicked the next rock he saw, and the next. His feet hurt and his chest still ached but Zuko needed to be doing something other than walking or else he would start to think about things he didn’t particularly want to think about. 

He would need to think about them at some point, Zuko knew. He couldn’t avoid it forever. But trailing behind the Avatar’s little gang while they walked to Omashu didn’t seem like the best time or place, because if Zuko actually thought about his uncle and Zhao and his father then he might start crying. No, he _would_ start crying. 

Iroh was still at the North Pole with Pakku, just barely holding onto life as the healers worked day and night to coax Iroh back to health. 

He had gotten hurt during the siege. Badly. And Zuko hadn’t even known how or why or when. 

Pakku had found Zuko and taken him back to the city. He had led Zuko to the palace, to hidden rooms and healing chambers, where his uncle lay with several waterbenders tending to him. Zuko had seen red--too much red, and he had yanked himself out of Pakku’s hold and pushed past the Avatar and his friends and hit the ground so hard that his bones rattled. He had taken hold of his uncle’s hand--and it had been so cold--and asked Pakku if Iroh would be okay with a shaky voice that made him sound so _so_ scared. 

And Pakku told him that he didn’t know. 

Zuko kicked the next rock hard, and Katara looked back at him when it bounced off the tree she was walking by. 

She narrowed her eyes and Zuko narrowed his eyes right back. 

He had wanted to stay in the North Pole with his uncle because Zuko didn’t know how to be without him, and he was so scared that he would lose Iroh just like he lost his mother. Silently and quickly and not at all able to stop it. But Iroh had woken just long enough to squeeze Zuko’s hand and tell him to go with the Avatar, to find his own destiny well before it wanted to be found, to learn how to be Zuko. 

Iroh told Zuko that he loved him, that he was proud of him, then went back to sleep. 

“Will you stop?” Katara snapped.

Zuko scowled. “I didn’t do anything.” 

“You’re kicking rocks at me!” Katara rounded on him. Her fists were clenched, and the water in the nearby pond quivered with it. 

“If I were kicking rocks at you, you would know it.” Zuko felt his own hands grow warm with fire, then Sokka was in front of him and gently pushing him back with hands colder than his own. 

“Alright, let’s calm down--” Sokka gave him a small smile, and Zuko’s fire went out. A bit of his hair had fallen from his wolf tail, and it hung in front of his eyes. Sokka took a hand off Zuko’s chest to push it back, and Zuko didn’t understand why he immediately missed the cool touch. “--we’re all tired and cranky.”

“We should take a break,” Aang, ever the peacekeeper, jumped in. He looked excited, and Zuko couldn’t even begin to fathom why. “There's a river pretty close to here, and Appa could use a good soak.” 

Appa let out a little grunt as Aang patted his side. 

“Sure, Aang, that sounds great.” Katara put a hand on Aang’s shoulder, and didn’t look back at Zuko. 

\--

The river had been a good idea, even though Zuko didn’t get into the water with everyone else. 

Instead he sat on the bank with his pant legs rolled up and his feet in the water, far enough away from Aang and Katara so he didn’t interfere with their water bending practice, but close enough that he was still in sight. Sokka had stayed close to him, and Appa had stayed close to Sokka, which meant that Zuko didn’t have much else to look at except a sky bison and Sokka. 

Zuko had chosen to look at Appa, because Sokka was wet and half naked and his hair was down and--and Zuko didn't know what to do with that. 

Appa let out a quiet bellow and ambled over to Zuko, dropping his head onto the riverbank while keeping the rest of his body submerged. He nosed at Zuko’s hand, and Zuko smiled and reached out to gently stroke Appa’s nose. 

Appa let out a happy sigh, and the motion of petting the bison was so relaxing that Zuko didn’t have to think about all those things he didn’t want to think about.

Sokka came over to Zuko a few moment’s after Appa did. He pushed his hair out of his face and braced himself against the riverbank before pushing himself out of the water, his muscles flexing with the movement. As he settled next to Zuko, he understood with a shocking clarity just _exactly_ why he had missed when Sokka took his hands off his chest. 

“Are you okay?” Sokka asked. 

Zuko stared at him for a long time, very aware of how red his cheeks must be. Then he blinked, swallowed, looked back at Appa, and decided to tell the truth.

“I don’t know.” he answered. “I can’t--I can’t stop thinking that Uncle might--”

Zuko had not heard any news about Iroh since they left the Earth Kingdom military outpost. 

A letter from Pakku had been waiting for him when they arrived, saying that while Iroh was more lucid, it was still too soon to say with any certainty if he would be alright. Zuko had clung to that letter like a lifeline all throughout their stay, desperately hoping for another letter to follow.

Nothing ever did. 

“I’m sure they’ll be something waiting for you in Omashu,” Sokka leaned a little closer, put a hand on Zuko’s shoulder, and gave it a soft squeeze. “And I’m sure that it’ll be good news. The Water Tribe’s got the best healers, after all.” 

Zuko tried to offer Sokka a smile. He wasn’t sure how successful he was, but he must have at least managed a smile, because Sokka gave him one back. 

Things had been strange between them, at first. While they had been back at the North Pole they had sat up together through most nights, up on the snow walls, staring at the moon in silence. Sokka had cried a lot those first few nights, and Zuko did not, because he didn’t know how to. Then they had started talking, and Sokka told Zuko a story about a beautiful girl named Yue, and Zuko told him a story about a kind man named Iroh, and they only exchanged apologies because they hadn’t known what else to say. Then Zuko had cut his hair, and Sokka watched as Zuko threw it into the ocean and watched it drown. 

Things had changed between them then, but in what direction neither of them knew. 

Sokka looked like he wanted to say something else, but then Appa grunted and quickly picked up his head. The bison narrowed his eyes as he stared out into the trees, lip curling in a nearly silent growl. 

Sokka followed Appa’s line of sight a few seconds later, and a few seconds after that Zuko heard it. 

“Is that...singing?” he asked. 

Sokka tilted his head and listened closer, and a few moments later Zuko got his answer. 

He didn’t not recognize the people in the little rag tag group that came from the woods, but Zuko did recognize the loose fitting and floral colored dress of Earth Kingdom nomads. 

“Woah,” the man who was doing most of the singing abruptly stopped both his song and his movement. He looked at Zuko and Sokka with wide eyes, not even seeing Appa or Katara and Aang, who were hurrying over to them. “It’s river people!”

“We’re not river people.” it slipped out before Zuko could even think about it. 

The man blinked. He looked confused. “But...you’re by a river.” 

“That doesn’t--what does that have to do with anything?” Zuko was just as baffled as the man was. “We’re just people.” 

Sokka huffed out a quiet laugh. 

Zuko opened his mouth to say something else, because now he was heating up about this stupid idea, but before he could Aang bounded over and stuck out his hand. “Hi! I’m Aang! And these are my friends Katara, Sokka, and Zuko.”

He pointed to each one of them individually. 

“I’m Chong, and this is my wife, Lily,” Chong took Aang’s hand and vigorously shook it, then introduced everyone else in his little rag tag group. Zuko had already forgotten their names. He only felt a little bad about it. “We’re nomads, wandering wherever the breeze takes us.”

Chong hummed and strummed out a tune on his pipa, spinning in a lazy circle. 

Zuko looked at Sokka, who was rolling his eyes. 

“Where are you headed to?” Chong suddenly asked, straightening back up and looking at Aang with an alarmingly intense expression. 

“Omashu.” Aang answered easily. Momo chirped from his spot on the airbenders shoulder. 

“Omashu, huh?” Chong relaxed again, strumming a few more chords on his pipa. “We could take you there. We know a back way--virtually undetectable. You could even say it’s a secret tunnel.” 

“I do like secret tunnels,” Sokka mumbled, and this time Zuko rolled his eyes. 

Chong smiled then. “There's a song about it. Here, I’ll play it for you.” 

Then he started to sing a song that Zuko knew all too well. His mother used to sing him and Azula this song when they had been little and went to her for nightmares and comfort, and later on Iroh sang it when he thought Zuko was asleep. Zuko knew this story so well, and it was jarring to hear it again from a voice he did not know.

Zuko hadn’t even realized the song was over until Aang was speaking. 

“Thank you, but I think we’ll have to pass--Appa doesn’t like being underground, and I have to do what’s comfortable for him--”

“Maybe we should.” Zuko didn’t want to spend any more time with the nomads than he had to, but he blurted it out anyway. When he looked up everyone was looking at him, and Zuko swallowed and forced himself to keep looking at them. “We’re way too close to the colony borders. There’s going to be Fire Nation soldiers everywhere--”

“I’m sure we’ll be fine, Zuko.” Katara cut him off, her voice nearly as hard as the ice she could bend. 

Zuko snapped his mouth shut, and Sokka put a hand on his shoulder. 

\--

Zuko had been right about the Fire Nation soldiers, and he had been right about needing to travel through the Cave of Two Lovers, but he wished he wasn’t. 

Katara wasn’t even looking at him as they went back to the river they left the nomads at, and Aang kept shooting him apologetic glances. Sokka hung back with him, and when Katara stormed back up to the nomads Sokka gently held Zuko back. 

“I’m gonna talk to her when we get to Omashu.” he said.

Zuko glanced at Katara before looking back to Sokka. He had done awful things before all of this. He didn’t blame Katara for still being angry with him. “You don’t have to.” 

“Yes, I do,” Sokka frowned. “I’m tired of her treating you like this, Zuko. Aang and I have forgiven you, and she needs to too.” 

Zuko’s heart did something funny in his chest, and all he could really do was stare and nod. 

“You two coming?” Chong called out to them. He and everyone else were already well upstream, and Sokka let out a frustrated sigh before taking hold of Zuko’s wrist and following after them. 

\--

Zuko didn’t know what he was expecting The Cave of Two Lovers to look like, but he didn’t think this was it. 

“It’s...kinda boring.” Zuko tilted his head as he looked at the cave entrance. 

“It’s a cave.” Aang said. He had fallen to the back with Zuko because Appa had fallen back. Aang was keeping a hand on the sky bison and gently trying to coax him forward. He wasn’t getting very far. “What were you expecting it to look like?”

Zuko shrugged. 

Momo had moved to sit on his shoulder, and he chirped at Zuko’s movements. 

“I don’t know...the story just made it seem...I don’t know, more grand? I guess?” Zuko looked at Aang, who was looking at him with a slightly puzzled expression. 

“What story?” he asked. 

Zuko blinked dumbly, but he didn’t get a chance to respond. The rumble of tanks cut him off, quickly followed by the roar of fire. Zuko hardly had time to shove Aang out of the way and throw his hands up to catch the fire’s momentum and throw it back. It hit the side of the tank as it rounded the corner of the cliff face.

“Get in the cave!” Zuko shouted, bracing himself to catch the next round of fire. Momo chirped, but didn’t get off Zuko’s shoulder.

“But Appa--”

“Appa’s going to have to get over it.” Zuko gritted his teeth, thrusting his hands out to catch the fireball before dispersing it. Then he summoned up his own fire and flung it back. It didn’t do much--just scorched the metal.

Zuko heard Aang apologize to Appa, then a rush of air, and when he looked back everyone was in the mouth of the cave. 

Sokka was looking at him with wide eyes. “Zuko, come on!” 

Zuko looked back at the tank--tanks. There were more of them. He wasn’t going to be able to do anything, none of them were going to be able to do anything, so Zuko turned back and started running toward the cave, Momo still chirping away on his shoulder. 

He heard the woosh of the fire before he saw it, and when Zuko looked up and saw the fireball heading straight for the cave entrance he didn’t even hesitate in dropping down to his side. Momo fluttered off his shoulder as Zuko kicked the fireball up and away as hard as he could. It careened into the side of the cliff, shaking loose rocks and stone that had been waiting years to fall.

The cave entrance collapsed just as Zuko slid in. 

It was deathly silent, then the scrape of a torch being lit echoed off the stone. 

“Zuko? Are you alright?” Sokka was coming over to him, dropping to his knees when he got close enough to Zuko to plant a hand on his back as he sat up. 

Zuko nodded. Sokka’s hand was still cold, and it felt good against the scrapes and bruises he was now sporting. 

“Did you just shut us in?” Katara rounded on Zuko. She was holding the torch, and the flickering light cast frightening shadows across her face. She didn’t look angry so much as she just looked frightened. 

“He just kept us from getting killed, Katara.” Sokka jumped in before Zuko could try and defend himself. 

“He also just trapped us in this cave!” Katara snapped back. 

“And you think that was his fault?” Sokka’s hand slid off Zuko’s back. Then he was on his feet, stomping closer to Katara. “I didn’t see _you_ doing anything out there.” 

“Guys--” Aang tried to get between them, but both of the siblings were not having it.

“I would have been out there if Aang hadn’t--”

Zuko felt the shifting before he heard it. He pushed himself to his feet and launched himself at Sokka, pushing him to the ground just as the cave collapsed around them. 

The silence this time was worse. 

Everything was muffled by dust and rock and dark. It took Zuko a few tries to coax a flame into his hand, but he was too scared to grow it into anything larger, afraid of there not being enough oxygen to keep it fed, afraid of the space being too small, afraid of what he would see. 

Zuko didn’t realize how quickly and shallowly he was breathing until Sokka was reaching out and placing Zuko’s hand on his chest.

“Breath with me, Zuko,” Sokka’s voice was slow and soft. “Breath with me.” 

Zuko opened his mouth and gasped in a lung full of air and dust. He coughed and choked, but then slowly his breathing evened out and his chest was moving in time with Sokka’s and the flame in his hand grew and shrunk with his breath. 

“You okay?” Sokka asked quietly.

Zuko nodded. 

“Sokka? Zuko?” That was Katara’s voice. It was muffled, but that was her voice. 

“Katara?” Sokka called back.

There was the shuffling of rocks and grunting sounds, and it took a moment for Zuko to put two and two together. 

“Wait--don’t try and move the rocks!” Zuko held the flame a little closer to the new rock wall and flinched back when a few shifted. “This thing isn’t stable--you could collapse the whole thing.” 

The shuffling stopped. 

“Are you guys okay?” That was Aang.

“Yeah, buddy, we’re fine. We have Momo too.” Sokka answered. Zuko blinked, then moved his flame back to Sokka. Momo was perched on Sokka’s shoulder, looking at Zuko with large eyes. He hadn’t even realized the lemur was there. 

There was a moment of silence before Aang spoke again. “We're all okay, but...what are we gonna do?” 

“We’re gonna have to find our own way out. There’s no way we can get to you. You guys go, and Zuko and I will meet up with you on the other side.” Sokka then turned to Zuko. some of his hair had escaped his wolf tail during the fall, and Zuko had to bite back the urge to reach forward and pull it back. “I hope you’re good at making mental maps.”

“Do you not have paper?” Zuko asked.

Sokka shook his head. “All our supplies are with Appa.” 

Zuko grimaced. 

\--

By the twelfth dead end Zuko had to sit down. 

The entire left side of his body ached and was going stiff, he couldn’t quite breath right, and it was getting harder and harder to not let the flame he held dim. 

Normally Zuko wouldn’t have a problem maintaining that little flame, but redirecting that fire had taken too much out of him too quickly. Firebender’s weren't built for redirecting fire and very few could actually do it with ease--their bending style was almost entirely offensive, and going on the defense like that threw a lot of things out of balance. 

Zuko needed a break, needed to let his jing rebalance, but they didn’t have time for that. 

“Can we just--sit for a second?” Zuko reached out and grabbed the back of Sokka’s shirt and gave a weak tug. 

Sokka immediately stopped. He led Zuko to a little ledge just wide enough for two people to sit on. Still, they were crammed together, shoulders pressed together and knees knocking against one another. Momo chirped and hopped from Sokka’s shoulder to Zuko’s.

They sat in silence for a while while Zuko fought to even his breathing. 

Once Zuko had the pulse of his flame matched with his breathing Sokka spoke. “Either I’m really bad at mental maps, or these tunnels keep moving.” 

Zuko hadn’t thought about it until now, but--

“There’s probably badgermoles in the cliffs.” he said quietly. He had to pause to get a big enough breath. “I’m guessing it’s how a lot of these tunnels got here in the first place. 

“Great.” Sokka spat out a few curses. Zuko didn’t pay them any mind, because he suddenly realized that what they were sitting on wasn’t a ledge. It was a set of stairs. 

Zuko jumped up, and Momo, startled, jumped off his shoulder and back to Sokka’s. He pushed more energy into the flame he was holding until it was big and bright enough to light the whole room. Zuko felt something tighten in his chest as he saw the statue of the two lovers.

“Woah,” Sokka stood, walking down a few steps to stand by Zuko. “What is this?” 

“A tomb.” Zuko answered. 

“Oh.” Sokka crossed his arms high over his chest. “Cool. Love that.” 

Zuko rolled his eyes and kept walking down the stairs. Sokka yelped and ran after him, Momo chittering and flapping his wings to keep his balance. Zuko stopped to let Sokka catch up to him, and they walked to the stone coffin together. 

“This must be where they're buried,” Zuko mumbled. He held out his hand to bring the light closer to the carvings etched into the stone, now far more shrunken and flickering dangerously with each breath Zuko took. 

Instead of names, he found a story. 

“Where who’s buried?” Sokka leaned closer and Zuko leaned closer to him without even noticing. 

“The two lovers.” Zuko answered.

“Oh. Right. From the song.” 

“But it’s not just a song. It’s history.” Zuko looked at Sokka and found himself so close that their noses were almost touching. Still, Zuko didn’t pull away. “They were the first ever earthbenders--without them there wouldn’t even be the Earth Kingdom.”

Sokka looked at him with wide eyes, waiting for him to continue. 

Zuko swallowed and thought about how Iroh told the story, thought about the words his uncle used and how wistful he always got at the end. Zuko swallowed again. “The Earth Kingdom was just a bunch of villages at first, and the lovers' different villages were at war with each other. But they found these tunnels, so they were able to keep seeing each other, and eventually they learned earthbending from the badgermoles so they could make their own tunnels.” 

“Like how waterbenders learned from the moon?” Sokka asked.

Zuko nodded. “Right. So because they could earthbend they were able to keep seeing each other, but eventually the man died in the war. When the woman found out she nearly destroyed both villages with her earthbending, but instead she ended the war and joined the two villages together into a city. They named it after them--Omashu.”

Sokka blinked. “So they were...Oma and Shu?”

“Yeah. She built the city right on top of the mountain where she and Shu met.” Zuko turned back towards the carvings, holding his hand closer to one so he could properly read it. 

“...love is brightest in the dark.” he echoed. 

Sokka leaned in to read it too. He didn’t pull back. “I never knew that.”

“I don’t think a lot of people do--it’s pretty ancient history.” it was getting really hard to breath. Zuko leaned back, let his flame die to almost nothing, and took in a breath that rattled every single one of his ribs. 

“Zuko!” Sokka scrambled after him, reaching out his arms to take a hold of Zuko’s shoulders. He had been swaying and hadn’t even realized. “You need--sit. You need to sit. You’re not okay--”

“I’m just tired,” Zuko mumbled, but he let Sokka gently guide him to the floor anyway. 

“ _I’m_ tired. You’re exhausted.” Sokka adjusted them so Zuko was leaning into Sokka’s side. Zuko didn’t want to pull back. He let himself go limp, let Sokka take the weight, and moved his hands to his lap to better hold the flame. “You’ve been firebending nonstop for--I don’t even know how long.” 

Zuko didn’t know either. It wouldn’t be so bad if he was out in the sun, feeding off Agni’s light, but he wasn’t. He was stuck underground and in the dark and with no way to let his jing sort itself back out or to refill his energy. 

“You need a break.” Sokka finished.

Momo let out a little purr and jumped back to Zuko’s shoulder, curling around his neck and nuzzling his cheek. 

“Sokka, if I let this flame die I don’t think I’ll be able to bring it back for awhile.” even as Zuko spoke it was already getting smaller. 

Sokka cursed some more and looked wildly around before his eyes landed back on the stone coffin and the carvings. “You said love is brightest in the dark. Maybe we could do something with that.”

“What are we gonna do with that?” Zuko frowned. His hands were shaking. “Kiss and hope a light turns on?”

“I don’ t know, maybe!” 

Sokka’s cheeks immediately went a bright red. He snapped his mouth shut and looked at anything that wasn’t Zuko. 

Zuko stared at him.

“I--no, that’s dumb. Just forget I said it--” 

“I wouldn’t mind.” Zuko mumbled.

Sokka stopped talking. He looked back at Zuko. The flame was so small now that Zuko could hardly see him. “Wouldnt--wouldn’t mind what?”

“Doing that.” Zuko said. “Kissing.”

His vision swam for a moment, and Zuko pitched forward. Momo shrieked and jumped back to Sokka, and Sokka threw his arms out and caught Zuko before he face planted into the dirt. He took a deep breath, looked up at Sokka, then let the flame die out as he lifted his hands to cup Sokka’s cheeks. 

Then Zuko kissed him. 

And Sokka kissed him back. 

And when Zuko pulled back and blinked open his eyes he could still see. 

“I--did we do that?” Zuko looked around, baffled.

“Do what?” Sokka was looking at Zuko with a dazed expression, but when Zuko looked back at him he blinked and snapped out of it. “I--woah.” 

They both looked up, still holding each other. Above them the ceiling was littered with stones and pebbles, emitting a soft glow down onto them. It was not the sun, but Zuko felt a little better being under that light anyway. 

“They glow in the dark.” Sokka sounded breathless. “The rocks glow in the dark.” then he looked back at Zuko with a grin. “I bet if we follow them I’ll lead us out!”

He helped Zuko back up to his feet, and didn’t let go of his hand. 

\--

They made it out just as Aang and Katara burst from the cliff face on top of a badgermole. Sokka ran to Katara to bear hug his sister and check over for injury, and Zuko fell into the dirt and took deep breaths and let the sunlight soak into his skin.

This time he did not miss the weight of Sokka’s hand in his. 

Aang bounded over to him a few moments later.

“You made it out!” he grinned down at Zuko, then sat next to him. “How did you do it?”

Zuko looked at Sokka. He was still with his sister, but he looked over at Zuko and gave him a soft smile. Zuko smiled back, and felt something in his heart twitch. 

“We listened to the song.” he said. 

“Oh.” Aang blinked. “We let the giant badgermoles lead us out.” 

Zuko looked back up at the sky, and breathed easily.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this and now I'm actually really interesting in exploring a Zuko joins the gaang at end of season one story line, so maybe expect more? after I finish my 87 different projects, of course


End file.
